Winnie the Pooh

Oh, man, why can't more of the new Disney movies be like Winnie the Pooh? This movie really got it. It nailed the feel and tone of the original Winnie the Pooh shorts, but with just a little bit of a modern sensibility thrown in. We all should have gone and saw this the weekend it came out, but we were all busy seeing the final adventure of Harry Potter and friends. Okay, can you blame us? It was Harry Potter.

Winnie the Pooh is just like its predecessors. Gentle, full of wit and whimsy, and set in the rich little universe of the Hundred Acre Wood, which is apparently both inside Christopher Robin's head, and also located on the page of a storybook. That sounds inconsistent, but you never really question it.

The storybook is narrated by John Cleese, and the characters interact with the words on the page like it's nothing out of the ordinary. The story follows Pooh on a single-minded search for hunny, which leads to him helping Eeyore find his tail, which leads to Owl driving them all into a panic over a nonexistent monster. Every character gets a good chunk of movie, except maybe Kanga and Roo, who mostly sit this story out. The story has pretty much the attention span of a little boy playing with his toys, bouncing from one vignette to another at a moment's notice, taking the time to go on diversions and distractions, but it all comes together in the end.

The voice acting is mostly dead-on. The voice of Pooh sounds pretty much just like the original guy who did it. The rest of the characters aren't exact matches, but they match the originals in spirit and intent. I especially liked Craig Ferguson's take on the know-it-all Owl, who got many of the movie's biggest laughs. I was surprised about Tigger, certainly the favorite of every kid. He was definitely mine, but now, not so much. It must be a sign of aging, but now he just tires me out.

There are also some really great original songs in Winnie the Pooh, as well as reprises of the famous ones. Sometimes the songs are sung by the characters, and other times they're sung by Zooey Deschanel, who has a pretty perfect voice for this (we're all agreed that she's pretty perfect in general, right?).

It's too bad Disney chose to release Winnie the Pooh on the same day as Harry Potter, but then again, I can't imagine it would have broke the box office these days, anyway. I'm glad I got to see it on the big screen when I had a chance, though. Surely it will become a favorite of millions of little kids, and something at least tolerable for their parents, if not downright joyful, around Christmastime.

I don't believe I've seen the original Winnie the Pooh shorts since I was a kid, but I feel like I remember them pretty well. This made me really want to see them again. I hope Disney has Blu Ray plans for them, as I would love to add them to my collection.